Photoshop Tutorial: HDR Images

I think amongst photographers, HDR is a bit like marmite, you either love it or hate it. I have seen some amazing landscape shots enhanced with the use of HDR but it's never been something that has massively appealed to me…. Until now!

HDR stands for High-Dynamic-Range imaging and to put it simply, it gives you a better range of highlights, shadows, colours than you can capture with real world scenes.

I read a couple of tutorials on it after looking at some album artwork that I thought looked really cool and that I wanted to have a go at recreating (The Amazing Snakeheads, Amphetamine Ballads to be precise).

The technical bit:

• You need to take 3 images, one a stop or two under exposed, one correctly exposed and a third image one or two stops over exposed. (In order to get a seamless free image, it's best to use a tripod, unless you want a more ethereal, dreamlike or ghostly final image.)
• Open up Photoshop and click on file, then 'automate' and 'Merge to HDR pro'

• You'll then get a pop up box with your HDR image and now the world is your oyster! Play around with the settings and see what you get!

NB If you can't see the the save or OK button if you edit on a Mac, move the toolbar to the left or right (apple -> Dock -> Position on Left/Right) and it should come up. For some reason, on mine, the bottom of the box gets cut off meaning you have to force quit and lose your lovely image!

Like I said previously, if you want a crisper image, you'll need to use a tripod, but I was so eager to try the technique out I didn't bother! Serendipity prevailed once again and I love the softer edges and the more eerie feel of the photo by not using one.

And just to add a bit more spookiness to the image, I did another edit but this time I made the eyes completely black. Thoughts?!